Boy nearly buried alive after beach hole collapse, rescuer says

Rescuers praised the parents for their quick-thinking to save the teenager

Anderby Creek (Creative Commons - CC BY-SA 2.0)

A boy trapped up to his neck in sand after the hole he was digging on the beach collapsed was nearly buried alive rescuers said.

The 14-year-old boy was “lucky” not to have been buried alive after becoming stuck after the hole at Anderby Creek in Lincolnshire collapsed with only his head visible.

His parents were able to keep his mouth free by scooping the sand away until rescue teams arrived. The coastguard said it was a “challenging task” to dig him out without causing a further collapse.

He became trapped at about 12:45pm on Saturday and coastguard rescue teams from Skegness and Mablethorpe along with fire crews, police and East Midlands Ambulance Service were sent.

“What happens as you disturb the sand, there’s a high likelihood of it collapsing back in and the priority was to make sure at at all times his airway was protected and his head remained above the sand,” Fran Wilkins, HM Coastguard senior coastal operations officer, said.

“It needed lots of people in a coordinated effort to remove the sand in a way that we could get him out of the hole as quickly and as safely as possible.”

Ms Wilkins added: “Luckily he did remain calm throughout which definitely helped reduce the panic and allowed everyone to get to work and do their job.”

Rescuers spent about an hour digging before the teenager was released and checked over by the ambulance service.

She said the boy had been standing up when the hole collapsed in on itself but if he had been lying down it could have been a “very different outcome”.

She praised his parents for keeping the sand out of his mouth and calling for help.

“There's that instinct to keep trying to dig, but the more you disturb and weaken that sand that has collapsed in, you're potentially going to create a much bigger hole.

“They kept his head clear and his mouth and nose free so he could breathe and waited for more to help which was really really important for him.”

She warned beachgoers to consider the size and location of the hole and be mindful that “the larger it is the higher the chances it may collapse”.

Anderby is on the North Sea coast, four kilometres north of Chapel St Leonards, and is known for its caravan parks and holiday retreats.